Locations - Maine

AUBURN. B. Peck Co., Main Street. "The
largest department store east of Boston...It was .. so elegant that even the
pipes in the pneumatic tube cash carrier were decorated." Androscoggin
County website.

AUGUSTA. Fowler & Hamlen (dry goods). "The aspect in and around Fowler & Hamlen's dry goods store is becoming quite metropolitan. The latest enterprise.. is the adoption of Lawson's [sic] cash railway system, the purpose of which is to facilitate making change with customers, and to carry all the money received by the clerks to the cashier's desk. As arranged at present each counter has a money draw [sic], and the clerks make change from there. Under the new arrangement a miniature railway system, with branches connecting with each of the eight counters, will be suspended several feet from the ceiling, having the cashier's desk as one common center. There are two sets of railways and both are inclined planes... There is but one cash system of this kind in use in the State, and that is in Lewiston. Fowler & Hamlen will have theirs in operation by Monday morning. Daily Kennebec Journal, 3 May 1884, p.3

LEWISTON.Chabot & Richard, Lisbon Street. "The grand opening of Chabot & Richard's in their new and handsome store in the new McGillicuddy block .. will take place this Wednesday... The store is fitted with the latest cash system, the Lamson rapid system being used on the first floor and the Lamson ball system on the second floor. Between twenty-five and thirty clerks will be employed. Lewiston Daily Sun, 14 Jan. 1903, p.9

LEWISTON. B. Peck dept. store, Main Street. "Once home of the largest department store east of Boston, B.Peck Co. closed more than a decade ago. It was, in its heyday, so elegant that even the pipes for the pneumatic tube cash carrier system were decorated. Rising five stories from Main Street, the shopping facility came to be known as "The Great Department Store"... Since 1988, the building has been home to one of three Maine L.L.Bean telephone order centers." Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce website